Seattle University professor to address ‘Immigration Crisis’

Natalie Cisneros, an assistant professor at Seattle University, will present “How Does It feel to be a Problem? Racism and the ‘Immigration Crisis’” at 2:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 7, in the Cone University Center, Room 111.

A faculty member in the Seattle University Philosophy Department, Cisneros focuses her teaching and research on philosophical questions about power: how and where it functions, when it operates to dominate and how oppressive forms of it might be resisted. Currently, she is completing a book manuscript that draws on the work of Michel Foucault and Gloría Anzaldúa, as well as other feminists and critical race theorists, to suggest a new approach to political and ethical questions surrounding immigration.

In her Feb. 7 talk, Cisneros will address the concept of immigration as a crisis that must be resolved. She noted that “instead of asking what can and should be done about the problem presented by ‘illegal aliens,’ I suggest we must ask where and through what means immigration has come to be understood as a problem in the contemporary United States.”

The UNC Charlotte Center for Professional & Applied Ethics is co-sponsoring this event with support from the Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund. It is the second program in a series on the topic of immigration.